“Compact Navigation” A New and Thin Version of Chrome UI

Chrome’s UserÂ InterfaceÂ is the thinnest out there and is the best, for fans like me. Things are getting even better with a new browser UI is being tested in Chromium flags.

Latest Chromium builds have a new addition to the about:flags page.Â Compact Navigation : Adds a “Hide the toolbar” entry to the tabstrip’s context menu. Use this to toggle between always displaying the toolbar (default) and only opening it as a drop down box as needed.

Compact Navigation Chrome

click on the image to zoom in

After activating this, you will get a new option when you right click on any tab. “Hide the Toolbar” Once selected, it will give you a new compact version of Chrome UI. You have pretty much everything still there. The wrench icon for settings will be moved to the tab bar to save some space.

The omnibox will not be displayed. But if you double click on any tab, a small box will appear below with the navigation, stop/reload and bookmark icons and this is your new omnibox.

I know that there are a few side tab fans here. This feature is not working with side tabs yet. I’ll let you know if I find it working in later builds.

ps: We also have an addition to the options menu in “Under The Hood” A check box to let Chrome run in the background. If you have any backround apps running, you can enable or disable that functionality here.